Instructions

Case studies are an essential learning  strategy in business classes because they provide an opportunity for  you to critically analyze events that have taken place in real-life  businesses. This develops your critical thinking and research skills as  you research the competition and industry in which your business resides  in order to formulate a recommendation for the challenges faced by the  company.

For this unit, review the “Marketing  Excellence: BMW” case study on pp. 273 of your textbook. This assignment  will be comprised of two parts; one part will ask you to respond to  questions, and the other will require you to complete a case analysis.

Part 1

Evaluate this case, and respond to each of the following questions using both theory and practical managerial thinking. 

• Examine and apply the consumer-buying process for BMW. Identify  the steps and the application to BMW. How does this process assist the  marketing team at BMW? 
• How could data analytics be used to research the consumer in  order to ensure a strong understanding of overall business and marketing  outcomes at BMW?
• Within the case, several clearly different target markets are  identified. What does BMW do well to target each of these groups, and  what could it do better? Within your response, include the process of  segmentation.

Your Part 1 response must be at least  two pages in length. Follow APA Style when creating citations and  references for this assignment. Note that you will submit Part 1 and  Part 2 in one document.

Part 2

Complete a case analysis of BMW. This  requires that you conduct research on BMW beyond the case study material  in the textbook. In the case analysis, you will look at the situational  analysis, problem, and alternatives, and you will provide a  recommendation. Refer to the instructions below as you construct your  analysis.

• Situational Analysis 
  • Discuss the external environment through the compilation of a  PEST (political, economic, sociocultural, and technology) analysis.
  • Discuss the internal and external environment through the  compilation of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and  threats) analysis.
• Problem  
  • Identify at least one organizational problem that BMW is  currently having or one in which you project it will have in the future.  Base this upon your research and critical thinking. 
• Alternatives 
  • Compile three or four potential marketing-related solutions to  the problem above. Remember that these are potential alternatives; you  will not select all of the alternatives to solve the problem. 
• Recommendation (Marketing Strategy) 
  • Select one or two of the alternatives above to solve the problem that you identified in this case analysis. 
  • Discuss your rationale for choosing these and not the others.  Include supporting research that will increase the depth of your  analysis.

In order to successfully complete Part  2 of this case study, you need to review the video and task learning  guides (TLGs) below. The following resources will provide you with the  skills to research industries/competitors. 

Company and Industry Research video (transcript for Company and Industry Research video)
How to Find Company Information in the Business Source Ultimate Database TLG
How to Search for Articles With a Company Focus TLG